Top things to know
- Dana Carvey said he did not understand the controversy over Shane Gillis' 'SNL' monologue, viewing it as a joke.
- Gillis sparked outrage on October 10 by mocking women at the gym during his hosting debut.
- Carvey made the comments on his 'Fly on the Wall' podcast with David Spade.
- Carvey acknowledged that 'SNL' may not have been the right venue for the joke.
- Dan Levy and Ego Nwodim were among the comedy stars who criticized Gillis' remarks.
Dana Carvey has weighed in on the backlash against Shane Gillis' recent "Saturday Night Live" monologue, saying he did not understand the controversy because he viewed the material as a joke, according to Variety.
Gillis sparked outrage on October 10 when he opened his "SNL" hosting stint by mocking women at the gym. "I haven't been to the gym in so long, I didn't know women just dress like whores now?" Gillis said during the monologue, according to Variety. "You've seen the shorts? They're those neon, like, artificial bait-colored [shorts], and the wrinkles go around the cheeks and all combine at the butthole. And don't look! You're not allowed to look."
Speaking about the backlash on his "Fly on the Wall" podcast with David Spade, Carvey said: "I just didn't understand the kerfuffle only because, to me, I just saw it as what we call — I'll just say it — a joke."
He continued, "Like, when you say jokes, you're not literally saying women are whores. You are literally joking. Isn't that kind of the idea? No? Did I just get canceled?"
Carvey, who was on "SNL" for seven seasons from 1986 to 1993, added that Gillis' joke probably "destroyed" in the "10 comedy clubs he played that week," but acknowledged that "SNL" was maybe "not the right place."
Spade interjected and said, "Listen, it got some laughs. I think he knows that one's going to be a button-pusher, but he doesn't care." Spade concluded that on "SNL," "if something kills, it gets a pass. If something totally bombs, then they get in a lot of trouble."
Several comedy stars have spoken out against Gillis' joke, including "Schitt's Creek" star Dan Levy and former "SNL" cast member Ego Nwodim, according to Variety.
"Women wearing short shorts at the gym does not make them whores. It makes the men calling them whores misogynists," Levy said in an Instagram Reel, according to Variety. "I'm speechless that something like that can exist on live national television. And to be perfectly honest, more men need to be standing up in opposition to it because it's complacency that has created the environment in which women are sexually assaulted and it's a 'conversation' as opposed to a 'crime.'"
The episode of "Fly on the Wall" featuring Carvey's comments was released in the wake of the October 10 broadcast, though Variety did not specify the exact release date of the podcast episode.